Project Design in Linguistics

Catalog description

This course employs design thinking methodologies to help students learn to focus and develop questions of interest for their projects in linguistics, and to articulate these questions clearly to experts in their fields and to general audiences. Each week, we will meet and have an interactive discussion addressing our questions (e.g., what needs to be true/answered first in order for me to ask this question, and is that need satisfied?; how can i best test this question?). Students will develop flexibility, presentation skills, openness to giving and receiving feedback, and principled pivoting. The course involves readings that we will discuss as a class and apply to our own projects; one reading each week in the student's own area of research; weekly integration of that work to question development; paired and group activities implementing core design thinking principles; a two-page concept note, and a proposed study design. The course is designed to move any project forward and give students skills to apply to future project development - so the beginning and endpoints will be different for every student.